In manufacturing fried chip foods such as fried corn chips, a dough-like material is initially formed into a thin sheet, cut into individual pieces of the desired configuration, and dried or partially baked prior to being subjected to frying. It has often been found that in the intermediate drying step, some of these dough pieces may become malformed and should be removed from the processing stream before the acceptably-formed pieces are subjected to frying. Otherwise, the malformed articles may be improperly fried or fried into rather hard ball-like objects, and find their way into the packaging process and ultimate delivery to the customer. To avoid this occurrence, inspectors may be employed to observe the pieces as they are delivered to the fryer and remove by hand those which are not properly formed. This, of course, is an expensive operation and, in addition, is not always reliable as such inspection processes are all ultimately a function of human frailty such as failure in concentration or some distraction. As a result, some of the malformed pieces may be inadvertently overlooked and not removed from the processing stream.
In the present invention, problems which have characterized this type of ejection process are overcome. For this purpose, a mechanism to remove selectively the malformed articles without materially affecting the position and movement of the remaining acceptably-formed articles has been devised and can be integrated in a system for forming the articles and their delivery to, for instance, a fryer. A feature of the invention is the ability to have the selective removal system integrated with existing systems for treating the articles, and the invention operates in a simple and efficient manner to perform the ejection operation. Another feature of the invention includes collecting the ejected, malformed pieces for disposal or recycling purposes such that they can be reintroduced into the system and eventually be converted into acceptably-formed products.
Because the human element is substantially eliminated from the system of the present invention a much more reliable and effective ejection operation is obtained. The final product is one in which quality in form is much better controlled as compared with those systems in the past where the type of ejection provided by this invention was not available. In addition, because of the cost savings resulting from the efficiency, as well as the simplicity of the system, overall production costs can be concomitantly reduced as compared with the removal of the malformed articles by personal inspection.
In the present invention, the articles, e.g., individual dough pieces, are interpositioned in a closely-spaced array, preferably in essentially a single layer, supported on a moving surface such as a conveyor belt. The malformed articles are randomly-positioned in the array, although all or a portion of the malformed and acceptably-shaped articles can be disposed in the array in a regular pattern. The upper portion of the malformed articles extends above the supporting surface a distance greater than in the case of the acceptably-shaped articles. The ejecting device can be comprised of a rotatable member having a plurality of blades or vanes extending outwardly therefrom. The latter device is positioned above the moving surface with the outer extremities of the blades extending, when in their lowermost position, a distance above the moving surface sufficient for the acceptably-shaped articles to pass beneath the blades without being touched, at least not sufficiently to disturb, to any significant extent, their positions on the surface. The blades, however, will, in their lowermost positions, be close enough to the moving surface to make sufficient physical contact with the taller, malformed pieces and physically move or knock them out of the array of pieces, e.g., off the moving surface. The direction in which the malformed pieces are ejected is the same as the rotating blades, that is preferably the same in which the surface supplying the articles is moving. The ejected articles can be propelled by the ejecting blades into a collector or receiver and may be periodically, or even continuously, conveyed to disposal or recycling to an article-forming operation to be reformed ultimately into a desirable shape.
The articles processed according to the invention may be of various compositions and shapes; however, the malformed articles extend above their moving, supporting surface to a height greater than the acceptably-formed articles. The latter are preferably relatively thin when lying flat although they may be somewhat uneven in height. For example, suitable thicknesses may be of the order of up to about 100 mils on a flattened basis, but if the articles are not flat their overall height will, of course, be greater. Also, the articles generally have sufficient integrity not to be unduly broken or disintegrated when the malshaped articles are impacted by the ejector blades. Doughs, such as corn doughs, usually have sufficient strength and cohesiveness to remain more or less intact when struck by hard ejector blades moving at a substantial differential speed of several hundred revolutions per minute, with respect to the moving array of dough pieces, and have been found to be suitable. Should the ejected articles break unduly, their collection may be difficult, and small portions of the malformed articles may fall onto the moving surface and be mixed among the acceptably-shaped products which, of course, is not desirable.